In this essay we propose the term ‘compact cinematics’ for the study of the various compact, short, compressed, and miniature (audio)visual artifacts, forms, and practices that circulate in our everyday multimedia environment across technologies, genres, and disciplines. We situate the current surge of compact cinematic phenomena against the backdrop of three discursive frameworks: screen studies; the current discussions on the economy of attention; and the human-technology nexus in a section on capture. These three paradigms provide fertile grounds to unpack some of the questions compact cinematics invoke, including the problematic of boundary fetishism and medium specificity, the balance between leisure and labour, and the functioning of compact cinematics within the cybernetic system of which it currently partakes.